Eat Your Breakfast!

Eating out your first meal of the day used to be a challenge. Few restaurants were open. Decades elapsed with places serving only the other two meals before restaurateurs caught on to the notion that there is way more money to be made with this first meal. Food costs are so much lower. Only Brennan’s had this figured since the beginning, Making the $40 ish “Breakfast at Brennan’s” a special occasion. Locally, the regular go-tos were Peppermill and Russell’s Marina Grill at the Lakefront.

Now that everyone else gets it, a new type of gourmet breakfast has emerged. Breakfast in 2019 means Benedicts options are limited only by the imagination. Everything is limited only by the imagination. Enter Toast. Not the dish. . .the restaurant.

Toast offers something not usually seen here, but something very handy. It is not on the menu. It is a service. You can check wait times and get in line from online. This is a necessary thing for Toast. Lines are long, and with good reason.

Maybe the most prevalent item seen on nearly all the tables at Toast we’ve noticed here only at Toast. AEbleskivers are a delectable Danish dessert or snack, seen only in America on the Food Network. They are rolled pancakes with a hidden hole in the middle. This hole can be filled with anything. We chose their homemade chocolate, but there is also maple syrup, jam, lemon curd, caramel or Nutella.

There is not a single Benedict on the menu here, but there is Monte Cristo and Croque Madame, and hangar steak and eggs, an indescribably delicious breakfast sandwich and a steak melt. Also an assortment of crepes, which was the least good thing at the table. These were too thick.

We started with the Danish delight. They come three or six to an order, piled up and lightly dusted with powdered sugar. Very cute, and quite good. Nearly everyone at Toast has this as an appetizer.

The Croque Madame is a stunning plate of food. Stacked high on two slices of their homemade thick sourdough bread, ham and cheese sit between the bread and two gorgeous sunny eggs on top make a strong visual statement. A bright green salad sits beside this tall sandwich, and the sight is actually exciting. Inside, there maybe could have been more ham and cheese because this bread is thick, and it could have been more toasted. But anything that comes to the table looking like this automatically raises expectations maybe a little too high.

We also got a quiche of the day, which was a good-sized slice of a high, dense mass of fluffed eggs. The crust on this could have and probably should have been thicker and flakier for the quiche filling, which overwhelmed the crust. This didn’t make a particular statement of flavor, which was disappointing.

We also had goat cheese, mushroom, and spinach crepes, which were way heavier than expected. This seemed flat and ordinary, except for a vibrant goat cheese.

The absolute star of this table was the breakfast biscuit, which came amidst all this food on a tiny plate by itself, just sitting there for a minute while we gawked at everything else. Almost by obligation, we tried it, and were soon fighting over it. The biscuit was toasted perfectly. It was buttery, flaky, and ridiculously tasty. The sunny egg peeking out of it was exactly right in texture and doneness. The yolk oozed with the first bite, making even a welcome mess. The bacon had a just-right everything: thickness, sweetness, smokiness, firmness. And the cheese gave it a tartness that hit the right note. Together these flavors and textures were absolutely thrilling. It was gone in two minutes.

There is an omelet section of the menu and of course a toast section. We can’t wait to return to explore these. All breads, jams, custards, and curds are housemade and fresh every day. One would expect nothing less from French Culinary Institute grads Cara and Evan Benson, who opened charming Tartine in 2010. Toast followed in 2014, Fairgrounds Toast in ‘16 and now a tiny outpost on Decatur, French Toast in 2018.

Service is friendly and efficient, and at the Uptown location you’re likely to meet the hostess Destiny. She is an absolute treasure.